Coles bookstore
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1940, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Founders | |
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Area served
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most of Canada |
| Products | Books |
| Parent | Indigo Books and Music |
| Subsidiaries | |
Coles is a Canadian bookstore chain owned by Indigo Books and Music. Coles currently serves as Indigo's brand for small-scale bookstores in locations such as shopping malls. Some locations are operated as SmithBooks, and the company has recently begun to open selected small-format locations as "IndigoSpirit".
In 1940, two brothers, Carl Cole and Jack Cole, opened their first bookstore in Toronto, near to the University of Toronto on Bloor Street near Spadina Avenue. Prior to opening the store they had operated a "pushcart," buying up textbooks at the end of the school year and reselling them in the fall.
At the age of 11, the Coles were living in foster homes in Detroit and eventually Toronto. With the little amount of money they had, they were able to open their first store (paying rent daily as they could not afford the monthly rent payments). With no retail experience, the Cole brothers turned their store into what was once Canada's largest bookstore chain.
Jack and Carl Cole are also responsible for inventing Coles Notes. Coles Notes began when students at a local high school were having trouble translating a French paper. Jack and Carl hired someone to translate the book and sold over 1,000 copies. The original Coles Notes were typed up by Mrs. Alcorn, and produced by mimeograph machine. (Mrs. Alcorn stayed with Coles Bookstores as long as it remained in the hands of the Coles brothers.) Coles Notes have sold over 80,000,000 copies worldwide, and served as the foundation for the similar Cliffs Notes which are published in the U.S.
Jack Cole was an avid collector of Canadian books, and in the late 1960s started reprinting affordable, paperbound facsimile editions of scarce and rare Canadian history titles, such as George M. Grant's Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming's expedition through Canada in 1872. Previous to the Cole's edition a history buff or student either had to pay a premium for the original edition if it could be found, have access to the rare book collection at a major library, or buy an expensive limited-edition reprint from one a historical society or university press.
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Wikipedia